Part 19

The northern forest, the most important economic factor, is composed largely of pure or mixed coniferous woods (74%), principally Norway Spruce (34%) and Scotch Pine (29.5%) with only slight admixtures of larch and fir, and more frequently White Birch. Open stand, comparatively poor development, and slow growth, characteristic of northern climate, reduce its productive capacity, while frequent bogs and other natural waste places outside of those produced by mismanagement reduce its productive area by not less than 20 per cent.

Toward the south, deciduous species are more frequent, oak finally becoming the prevailing timber and forming forests, with beech, maple, ash and elm as admixtures. As the plains are approached pure deciduous forest indicates the change of climate. The forest of the Caucasus is principally of coniferous composition.

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There are six classes of forest property: the government domain; the apanage or imperial family (crown) forests; private forests; peasant or communal forests; institute or corporation forests; and forests of mixed ownership in which government and private owners participate.

The larger part of the forest area of European Russia is in control of the Crown or State, namely, nearly 278 million acres, or a little less than two-thirds of the whole, and a similar amount in Asia, besides the so-called apanage forests of 14 million acres set aside for the support of the court. Especially the northern forest is in government control, in some governments (Archangel) the entire area; 67% of the domain forest lies in the two governments of Archangel and Wologda.

In the less wooded districts State property, is insignificant. The area under government control in Europe and Asia is estimated in the official report for 1908 at around 957 million acres. This is, however, not the exclusive property of the State; only about 260 million acres are so claimed, the larger balance includes 170 million acres which are to be apportioned to the liberated peasants, 200 million acres in which the government is only part owner, or the ownership is in dispute; and the rest is only temporarily placed under the management or surveillance of the administration. Yet, 60% in Europe and 13% in Asia is exclusive State property. In 1907, the area in Europe under working plans of the Forest Administration, however, was only 48 million acres, 86 million having been examined for working plans. Of the State property in Europe 34% is spruce forest, 30% pine, and 26% mixed conifer forest; altogether 88% of coniferous timber. The Asiatic area is also over 80 per cent. coniferous.

The apanage or crown forests, the yield of which goes toward maintenance of the imperial family, comprise about 16 million acres, or 3.4%. Private forest property to the extent of over 100 million acres (23%) is most developed in the Baltic provinces and along the Vistula. Mining corporations and other institutes own about 7 million acres.

The peasants, who until 1861 were mere serfs and had no ownership of any kind, being supplied with their necessities by the landed proprietors, still largely supply themselves in the northern provinces by the exercise of rights of user from the public domain on designated areas. In the central and southern provinces, farm and forest land, the latter to the extent of nearly 40 million acres, were given to them in communal ownership. As stated above, about 170 million acres classed as government domain still awaits partition and cession to the peasants.

2. _Development of Forest Policy._

The first record of attention to the woods as a special property dates from Michael, the founder, and Alexis, the second of the house of Romanoff, the former becoming Czar in 1613, the latter in 1645. He it was who began to introduce Western civilization. He confined himself, however, to regulating property rights, which up to that time had remained somewhat undefined, the forest, as elsewhere, being considered more or less public property. He issued deeds of ownership, or at least granted exclusive rights to the use of forests, somewhat similar as was done in the banforests. Soldiers alone were permitted to help themselves, even in private forests, to the wood they required. Protection against theft and fire was also provided.

The peasants, being serfs, were bound to the glebe, and had, of course, no property rights, being maintained by the bounty of the seigneurs.

Alexis’ successor, the far-seeing Peter the Great, who in his travels in Germany and other European countries had, no doubt, been imbued with ideas of conservatism, inaugurated in the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century a far-reaching restrictive policy, which had two objects in view, namely economic use of wood, which he had learned to appreciate while playing carpenter in Amsterdam, and preservation of ship timber, which his desire to build up a navy dictated. All forests for 35 miles alongside of rivers were declared in ban, and placed under the supervision of the newly organized Administration of Crown forests. In these banforests, the felling of timbers fit for ship building was forbidden. Minute regulations as to the proper use of wood for the purposes for which it was most fit were prescribed, and the use of the saw instead of the axe was ordered. These rules were to prevail in all forests, with a few exceptions, and penalties were to be exacted for contraventions.

This good beginning experienced a short setback under Catherine I (1725), Peter’s wife, who, influenced by her minister, Menshikoff, abolished the forest administration and the penalties, and reduced the number and size of banforests. But the entire legislation was re-enacted within three years after Catherine’s death (1727) under Anna Ivanovna’s reign, and many new prescriptions for the proper use of wood were added and additional penalties enforced.

At this time, under the influence of a German “forest expert,” _Fokel_, the increase of forest area by sowing oak, etc., in the poorly wooded districts, was also inaugurated; and this planting was made obligatory, not only on the administration of crown forests, but also upon private owners, who in case of default were to lose their land and have it reforested by the forest administration. To Fokel’s initiative is also to be credited the celebrated larch forest on the Gulf of Finland.

These restrictions of private rights and the tutelage exercised by the forest administration were abolished _in toto_ by Catherine II, in 1788, and although it was reported by the admiralty, concerned in the supply of shipbuilding materials, that as a consequence the cutting, especially of oak timber, was proceeding rapidly, no new restrictive, but rather an ameliorative policy was attempted, such as, for instance, the offering of prizes for plantations in certain localities by the provincial governors.

Upon the abolishment of the serfdom of the peasants, under Alexander II, in 1863, lands, both farm and woodlands, were allotted to them, and in this partition, in some parts as much as 25 to 50% of this forest property was handed over to them. Immediately a general slaughtering, both by peasants and by the private owners, who had suffered by losing the services of the serfs, was inaugurated, leading to wholesale devastation.

Servitudes or rights of user also prevailed in some districts and proved extremely destructive.

By 1864, complaints in regard to forest devastation had become so frequent that a movement for reform was begun by the Czar, which led to the promulgation of a law in 1867, followed by a number of others during the next decade, designed to remedy the evils. This was to be done by restricting the acreage that might be felled, by forbidding clearings, and by giving premiums for good management and plantations. Finally, in 1875, a special commission was charged with the elaboration of a general order which, after years of hearing of testimony and of deliberation, was promulgated in 1888, a comprehensive law for the conservation of forests, private and otherwise, which in many respects resembles the French, in other respects the Swedish conservation laws.

The devastation and its evil consequences on waterflow and soil conditions had been especially felt in the southern districts adjoining the steppe, and these experiences were the immediate cause for the enactment of the law, which, however, was framed to apply conditionally to the entire European Russia.

The law makes an interesting distinction between “protective,” “protected” and non-protective, or unprotected forests, as well as between different ownership classes, and it makes distinction of four regions as to the extent of its application. In the far northern governments, densely forested (60%) and thinly populated, only the protective forests are under the operations of the law. In the Caucasus also, none of the restrictions of private property except in protective and communal peasant forests are to apply, perhaps because the forest area (averaging not over 17%) is there largely owned by members of the imperial house and by nobles. In certain districts adjoining the northern zone (with 37% forest) also only the last two classes of forest, namely protective and communal properties, with institute forests added, are subject to the provisions of the law. The rest, a territory of over one million square miles with only 12% in forest, is subject to all the provisions of the law, which is remarkably democratic in treating State, imperial and private forests alike.

This law declares as “protective forests,” to be managed under special plans prescribed by the Crown forest department, those forest areas which protect shifting sands and dunes, the shores of rivers, canals and other waters; and those on the slopes of mountains, where they serve to prevent erosion, landslides and avalanches.

Conversion of these protective forests to farm use is forbidden, and the use of a clearing system in forest management, as well as pasturage and other uses supposed to be detrimental, may be interdicted, and the method of management may be prescribed. An instruction regarding the execution of the law promulgated in 1889 prohibited clear cutting in conifer forests, permitting only selection forest, and in especially endangered localities only the use of the dry wood and such trees as interfere with natural reproduction.

“Protected” forests are those which are located at the head waters and upper reaches of streams and their affluents. Here the rules as regards clearing, mismanagement, reforestation and pasture applicable to the non-protective forests, prevail, except that clearing may be prohibited or permitted, if the committee deems it not dangerous owing to the small size of the clearing.

In forests, which are not protective forests, conversion into farms or clearing with the sanction of the committee is permitted, if thereby the estate is improved, _e.g._, if the soil is fit for orchards and vineyards. Such clearing may also be allowed if the soil is fit for temporary field use, but in that case the area must be eventually reforested. Clearing is also permitted, if another formerly farmed parcel of the same size has been reforested at least three years prior to the proposed clearing; or if in artificial plantations the growth is not yet 20 years old; also in a few special cases where property boundaries are to be rounded off, roads to be located, etc. If after six months from the time of the application the committee has not forbidden the clearing, it is considered as permitted. It is also forbidden to make fellings which prevent natural regeneration, and the running of cattle in young growth is prohibited. Private owners are not required, but are permitted, to submit working plans, and if these are accepted, they are exempted from any other restrictions. Such plans may be considered as accepted if the committee does not express itself within one year. All clearings made in contravention to the committee’s decision must be replanted within a prescribed time or may be forcibly reforested by the committee.

The most interesting feature, because thoroughly democratic, is the creation of the local forest protection committees, which are formed in each province and district, composed of various representatives of the local administration, one or two foresters included, the justice of the peace or other justice, the county council and two elected forest owners, in all nine to eleven members, under the presidency of the governor.

This committee is vested with large powers. It decides, without appeal, what areas are included in protective forests and approves of the working plans for these as well as for the unreserved forests; it determines what clearings may be made, and exercises wide police powers with reference to all forest matters working in co-operation with the Forest Administration, which latter has the duty of making working plans free of charge for the reserved forests, and, at the expense of the owner for the private unreserved forests. Owners of the latter are, however, at liberty to prepare their own plans subject to approval. Appeal from decisions of the Forest Committees lies through the Committee to the Minister of Crown lands and Minister of the Interior.

In case the owner refuses to incur the extra expense arising from measures imposed upon him, the domain ministry may expropriate him, but the owner may recover within 10 years by paying costs with 6% interest in addition to the sale price. In addition to the above cited and other restrictive measures, some ameliorative provisions are also found. All protective forests are free from taxes forever; those artificially planted also for 30 years.

Some of the best forest officials are detailed to give advice gratuitously to forest owners (forest revisor--instructors) and prizes are given for the best results of silvicultural operations. At the recommendation of the Forest Committees, medals or money rewards or other distinctions are given to the forest guards and forest managers of private as well as public forests. Plant material is distributed free or at cost price, and working plans for protective forests are made free of charge.

The Imperial Loan Bank advances long term loans on forests, based upon detailed working plans made by the State, which insure a conservative management. In 1900, over 7,000,000 acres were in this way mortgaged under such management.

The minutest details are elaborated in the instructions for the execution of this most comprehensive law. How far this law is really executed and what its results so far have been, it would be difficult to ascertain. It is, however, believed that it has worked satisfactorily. By 1900, 1.5 million acres had been declared protection forests, nearly 2 million protected or river forests, and nearly 100 million private and communal forests had been placed under the regime. In 1907, the total area under the regime had grown to over 136 million acres. Of private forests, 18 million acres in 6015 forests were being managed according to working plans made or approved by the forest committees. In these plans, usually, the strip system or seed tree system with natural regeneration under 60 year rotation for conifers, and at least 30 year rotation for broadleaf forest, is provided.

In 1903, the application of the law was extended to the Caucasus, the Trans-caucasian and other southern provinces, but in the absence of suitable personnel and in a half civilized country, no result for the immediate future may be anticipated.

The surveillance of the execution of this law lies, with the assistance of the Forest Committees, in the hands of the State Forest Administration.

This latter, centralized in the Department of Agriculture, consists of a Director General with two Vice-Directors and a so-called bureau of forests with seven division chiefs, a number of vice-inspectors and assistants. The local administration in the governments is represented by the Direction of Crown lands with a superintendent or supervisor and several inspectors. The crown forests, divided into some 1260 administrative units, are under the administration of superintendents, with foresters and guards of several degrees.

The whole service comprised, in 1908, about 3790 higher officials, some 850 of whom in the central office at St. Petersburg, and over 30,000 lower officials some 20,000 of whom are educated underforesters.

Large as this force appears to be, it is small in comparison with the acreage, and inadequate. Although the net income from the 300 million acres of State forest which are actually worked is now close to thirty million dollars, the expenditures being near 6 million, the pay of the officials is such as to almost force them to find means of subsistence at the cost of their charges. Perhaps nowhere else is there so much machinery and so much regulation with so little execution in practice. Nevertheless, progress is being made in gradually improving matters, and the forest property, or at least the cut, has become more and more valuable. While in the middle of the last century the income from the domain forest was only $500,000, by 1892 it had grown to $10,000,000, by 1901 to $23,000,000, in 1908 to nearly $30,000,000, besides several million dollars’ worth of free wood. In 1908, the department spent over half a million dollars on planting and assisting natural regeneration. Timber is sold as a rule to contractors by the tree or acre, and a diameter limit is almost the only restriction. In 1897, however, an arrangement was made by which the lumberman was obliged to reforest, or at least to pay a certain tax into a planting fund, and a part payment of $2 to $4 per acre as guarantee must be made before cutting. This order has, however, remained mostly a dead letter, the buyer preferring to allow his guarantee to lapse. In 1906, there stood $3,000,000 to the credit of this planting fund, and only half of it had been applied. Meanwhile the unplanted area increases, since natural regeneration generally proves a failure.

3. _Education and Literature._

The attempts at forestry education date back to the year 1732 when a number of foresters were imported from Germany to take charge of the forest management as well as of the education of foresters, each forstmeister having six pupils assigned to him. This method failing to produce results, the interest in ship timber suggested a course in forestry at the Naval Academy, which was instituted in 1800. Soon the need of a larger number of educated foresters led to the establishment of several separate forest schools, one at Zarskoye Selo (near St. Petersburg) in 1803, another at Kozlovsk in 1805, and a third at St. Petersburg in 1808. This latter under the name of the Forest Institute absorbed the other two, and from 1813 has continued to exist through many vicissitudes. Now, with 15 professors and instructors and an expenditure of nearly $250,000, and over 500 students, it is the largest forest school in the world. It prepares in a four years’ course for the higher positions in the forest service. “The history of this Forest Institute is practically the history of forestry in Russia.”

A second school at Novo-Alexandria, near Warsaw, was instituted in 1860. In these schools, as in the methods of management, German influence is everywhere visible.

In addition to these schools, chairs of forestry were instituted in the Petrovsk School of Rural Economy in Moskau and in the Riga Polytechnic Institute, and also in seven intermediate schools of rural economy.

In 1888, ten secondary schools were established after Austrian pattern for the lower or middle service, rangers and underforesters; their number, by 1900, having been increased to 30 and, in 1908, to 33, with 460 students. These are boarding schools in the woods, where a certain number of the students are taught free of charge, the maximum number of those admitted being 10 to 20 at each school. The course is of two years’ duration, and is mainly directed to practical work and theoretical study in silviculture. The total expense of such a school is about $3,300, of which the State contributes $2,500, the total expenditure, in 1908, being $84,134.

A number of experiment stations were established in various parts of the country by the Administration of Crownlands, and a very considerable and advanced literature testifies to the good education and activity of the higher forest service.

Two forestry journals, _Lesnoj Journal_ (since 1870) and _Lessopromychlenny Vestnik_, the first bi-monthly, the latter weekly, besides several lesser ones, keep the profession informed.

There are in existence several general societies for the encouragement of silviculture. Probably the oldest, which ceased to exist in 1850, was the Imperial Russian Society for the Advancement of Forestry which was founded in 1832. It published a magazine and provided translations of foreign books, among which the Forest Mathematics of the noted German forester König, who also prepared yield tables for the Society. (See p. 135.) A society of professional foresters was founded at St. Petersburg in 1871, another exists in Moscow, and recently two associations for the development of forest planting in the steppes have been formed.

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Among the prominent writers and practitioners there should be especially mentioned _Theodor Karlowitsch Arnold_, who is recognized as the father of Russian forestry. He was the soul of the forest organization work, for which he drew up the instructions in 1845, and as professor, afterwards director, of the Institute for Agronomy and Forestry at Moscow since 1857, he became the teacher of most of the present practitioners. Finally he became the head of the forest department in the Ministry of Apanages where he remained until his death in 1902. He is the author of several classical works on silviculture, forest mensuration, forest management, etc., and, in conjunction with _Dr. W. A. Tichonoff_, published an encyclopædic work in three volumes. In the first volume, _Russland’s Wald_ (1890), which has been translated into German, the author makes an extended plea for improved forestry practice and describes and argues at length the provisions of the law of 1888. In 1895, he published a history of forestry in Germany, France and Russia. Of other prominent foresters who have advanced forestry in Russia we may cite _Count Vargaci de Bedemar_, who made the first attempt to prepare Russian growth and yield tables in 1840 to 1850.

_Professor A. F. Rudzsky_, who was active at the Forest Institute until a few years ago, developed in his volumes especially the mathematical branches and methods of forest organization. The names of _Tursky_, _Kravchinsky_ and _Kaigodorov_ are known to Russian students of dendrology and silviculture, and among the younger generation the names of _Morozov_, _Nestorov_, _Orlov_, and _Tolsky_ may be mentioned.

It is well known how prominent Russian investigators have become in the natural sciences, and to foresters the work of the soil physicists, _Otozky_ and _Dokuchaev_ would at least be familiar.

4. _Forestry Practice._

While then a very considerable activity in scientific direction exists, the practical application of forestry principles is less developed than one would expect, especially in view of the stringent laws. So far not much more than conservative lumbering is the rule.

Generally speaking, the State and crown forests are better managed than the private, many of which are being merely exploited; and in the northern departments large areas remain still inaccessible.